Friday, 2 October 2015

Money Flows With Refugees, and Life Jackets Fill the Shops

IZMIR, Turkey — For months, Ahmed Abdul-Hamid, a Palestinian
from the Syrian city of Aleppo, tried and failed to cross the sea to
start a new life in Europe. The Turkish police detained him. Smugglers
tricked him. Once, his boat stalled and he had to swim back to shore,
leaving him stranded and broke. But
his fortunes changed this summer when a Turkish smuggler hired him to
recruit passengers from among the refugees and migrants flooding into
this port city. Soon, his phone was ringing nonstop with people trying
to get to Europe, and the cash was pouring in for him — as much as
$4,000 per day."